


Help! I started a company with my best friends

by nearperfectthing



Category: Crooked Media RPF
Genre: just some absolute happy nonsense, letters to an advice columnist, significant others are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:43:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22369426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nearperfectthing/pseuds/nearperfectthing
Summary: If you have ever wondered “what questions would Jon, Jon, and Tommy send an advice columnist?” then this story is for you!(Questions and non-questions, sent and unsent, during Crooked’s first 3 years of existence)
Relationships: Jon Favreau & Jon Lovett & Tommy Vietor
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43





	Help! I started a company with my best friends

**Author's Note:**

> I am not Danny Lavery, I just read Slate advice columns too much. Fourth wall etc etc and I hope you enjoy reading half as much as I enjoyed writing

Dear Prudence,

I have two best friends, both of whom are former colleagues of mine. In the past few years, I have spent a lot of time working with them professionally, but we’re also good friends. Recently, we came up with an idea to go into business together. Like I said, we’ve worked together before, so we’re compatible in that way. I know it sounds crazy, but we have an opportunity and I think we could do something really good in the world. Also, we need to do something after the election, right? We can’t just to business as normal. Anyway. Is it really dumb to start a company with my two best friends? I’m going to do it anyway. 

Dear Prudence,

I live a few hours away from my two closest friends, and I travel to see them fairly often. In the past few weeks, we have started to talk about going into business together. Don’t worry, this isn’t a question about whether or not we should do that – we shouldn’t, but we’re going to anyway. This election has been hard on us all. Anyway, it’s not completely necessary that I move to their city in order to start this business, but it would make things a lot easier. My girlfriend and I are not particularly rooted to the city we currently live in, and she doesn’t need to be here for her work. Is it totally crazy to move to a different city (with a terrible housing market) so that I can go into business with my two best friends? But also, they’re my best friends and they look like they’re having a lot of fun and I miss them. 

Dear Prudence,

My best friends and I have recently started a company. We don’t have any office space yet, so we’re working from home (mine). This is free and convenient and means we don’t have to worry about what our dogs are doing from the day. The problem is that my wife also works from home. She has a small home office and my friends and I are working out of the dining room, but I’m worried I’m bothering her. What if we’re actually really imposing on her and she’s not saying just to be polite? What if she’s actually mad at me? I’ve asked her a few times and she says it’s fine, and that she liked being able to have lunch with me (and our friends) but I’m worried it’s going to start to get annoying. Also, sometimes she makes fun of us for working at home to our other friends (not the ones I work with). Does this mean that she’s actually annoyed about it? Or subconsciously annoyed about it? The answer is that we need office space, right? I think we should just get some cheap office space. I love my wife so much. 

Dear Prudence,

I have two very good friends of many years who I see often and work with. We are all in our mid thirties and all in serious relationships. They are both straight, I’m gay. I am considered by some people a funny person. In making jokes which are, again, funny in the opinion of some (I would go as far to say many), I occasionally hit on my friends. It would maybe be more accurate to say I often hit on my friends. They know it’s a joke, and we’re all very secure in our sexualities and our relationships. They have never said anything about it or implied I need to stop. Do I need to stop? Do I need to ask them if I need to stop? I don’t want to stop because again, the jokes are funny. And my friends are, objectively speaking, extremely attractive people (so is my boyfriend). But I don’t actually want to make them feel uncomfortable because you know, we gays don’t actually want to do that. Unrelated, is there such a thing as having a platonic crush? Not asking for me, asking for a friend. Haha. 

Dear Prudence,

How would you define the word “ambiguity?”

Dear Prudence, 

My two friends and I started a company together. All three of us have dogs, and are in the habit of having the dogs around us while we work. This started when we were working from home, and the building we lease our office in is okay with dogs as well. Now we’re hiring other people for our company, and I think we should make some sort of official policy for the company. Two of the dogs are very well behaved and the third isn’t so much but we love her anyway. Now some of our employees would also like to bring in their dogs. Do you or any of your readers have any advice about office policies on dogs? I’m worried about potentials for allergies, fear or dislike of dogs, and also the office just being entirely overrun by dogs. Also the problem of potentially being unprofessional. But dogs are great, right?

Dear Prudence,

My company has a pretty open policy about pets in the office, and all of us bring our dogs around fairly often. We have set up a rotating schedule for employees to have their dogs in the office. However, I have another co-worker who often teleworks, and does not have a dog. He does, however, have a baby, who is very cute. Can I tell him that he can bring the baby to the office sometimes if it makes it easier on him and his wife? Or does that make it sound like I’m comparing her to the dogs? She’s a lot quieter than my co-founder’s dog. I just want to make this office space as comfortable as possible. And I’ve been reading a lot about gender divisions in raising kids and I don’t want my co-worker’s wife to do too much of the work. She’s really great, we all love her. The wife, but also the baby. And my co-worker’s baby is just at the age where she’s starting to remember and form opinions about people, so I want her to feel comfortable around us, her dad’s friends. I just want the baby to like us! 

Dear Prudence,

I’m in my mid-thirties (okay, late-thirties) and I have a full, exciting social life, by which I mean I have more than five friends. Of these friends, there are some that I spend a lot of time around. I work with them, and spend time with them after work and on the weekends. I also spend a lot of time with their wives. This isn’t uncomfortable for me (I’m gay, if that makes a difference) (I just reread this and realized it did not make a difference, but I’m leaving it in. I wouldn’t want you to get the impression that I was straight, Dear Prudence). Two of my friends in particular, I spend a lot of time at their house. And walking their dog (and mine at the same time). And sometimes I run into them at the gym, or at restaurants in our neighborhood. None of us are good cooks. Anyway, the point is, how do I know if they secretly hate me?

Dear Prudence,

My job requires that I spend a lot of time on social media. I think that I’m pretty professional, and I follow lots of people who make good and interesting points. But no matter what I do, people are tweeting absolute bullshit. I know that I could just ignore it, but some of it is just wrong, and I am in a position where I can correct them. My co-workers say I need to stop getting into fights on twitter. How do I stop getting into fights on twitter? Relatedly, I average about six hours a day on my phone, according to that little notification thing they send you at the end of the week. That’s bad, right?

Dear Prudence,

My job requires that I spend a lot of time on social media. Sometimes I ignore this requirement, and go off of twitter for several days at a time, which makes me happier and my partner happier and probably my dog happier, although she is always happy. She is an angel. However, my co-worker and very good friend doesn’t see it the same way. He gets into so many twitter fights! I think he’s driving himself crazy. It’s probably too overbearing to lock him out of his own twitter or delete the app from his phone when he’s not looking (I know his password, so that’s not an issue) (not in a creepy way though), so how can I convince him he needs to stop? Dear Prudence, he needs to stop. 

Dear Prudence,

I (F 29) been happily married to my husband (M 38) for two years, and this isn’t one of those letters where I say I’m happily married and then it turns out it’s a nightmare and he’s the worst. My husband is wonderful, and his friends are wonderful. In fact, his best friend (M 39) met my best friend (F 29) and fell madly in love and are now married. And my husband’s other best friend (M 37) recently got engaged to his long-time partner (M 32). They are part-time long distance but whether we are five or six, we spend a lot of time together. We eat meals, watch tv, and sometimes even go on vacations together. All of us joke about being married in combinations that are not our actual relationships. I really love all five of these people – my husband especially, but all of them. Occasionally, I’ve met people who think that this dynamic is weird, or that it’s not being committed enough to one person. I can tell those people to fuck off, right? I think I just need to figure out a more polite way to say that. As a professional advice columnist, you must hear about a lot of bad or weird situations, and I’m just checking that this isn’t one of them.

-How Many Husbands Do I Have?

Dear How Many Husbands Do I Have?,

You have at least four husbands and one wife. I’m so happy that it’s working out for you all!


End file.
